 | About the film . . . |
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| a. What do you think is the most unique aspect of your film? |
"The letter," Elisabeth says without pause. She found the letter, which had been discovered originally on a German POW in WWII, in a paper about eugenics, or racial selection, while she was doing research for her feature, Gen. "When I read the letter," she explains, "I said, 'Oh, my God. That's absolutely unbelievable.' So when I had to find a subject for my short, I thought it could be a very good subject." Everyone she showed the letter to chuckled at first, until they began to appreciate the consequences of such a letter and fell frozenly silent. Indeed, Elisabeth says, even the first draft of Red Ribbon read as comedy.
"And it's my first short," Elisabeth adds. "A lot of people think that it's a trailer for a feature because of the quality. I was helped by very gifted people."
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| b. What was difficult in putting it all together? |
"It was absolutely not difficult. I thought that it was the first time in my life that I felt like I'm at my right place when I was on the stage," says Elisabeth. "It was just the little green men or the small angels--or whatever, I don't know who!--was with us, but nothing was complicated. Nothing."
"When I saw the location we shot in, I had goose bumps because it was exactly the place I was looking for," she says. "Everything was perfect--except the price, which was really unaffordable." But she made a deal with him that she could have the location for one weekend at a much reduced price, as long as no one else came along offering full price. When someone did, and the shoot had to be pushed back a weekend, Elisabeth was panicked. "I was like, 'Oh, my God.' The crew is ready, everybody's ready. Less than five minutes later, I got a phone call from my DP, who was bringing the whole crew. He said, 'Elisabeth, I'm really sorry. The film I'm working on, I have to work one week more. I am unable to come and shoot this weekend.' And I was like, 'Oh, ok. I will try to get the location for the other weekend.'
The good fortune continued after filming began--from the natural sunlight that lights all of the shots in the apartment, to the gust of wind which serendipitously ruffles the curtains in the young girl's bedroom.
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| c. Talk about some unexpected surprises that arose |
Elisabeth, whose native language is French, not English, was frazzled when her translator left for China three weeks before the shoot. "I was beginning to work with the actors. I had to change a lot of things. I was rewriting, and running all over the place asking, 'Is it correct grammatically? Is it correct?'"
Since shooting Red Ribbon was her first directing experience, Elisabeth warned her actors and crew that she'd need their help. The first day, she explains, "I didn't even know when I had to say 'Action.' So it was a friend of mine who pushed me the first time to say it."
Nevertheless, the shoot, "was like magic," she says. "My DP told me that his crew was always complaining about something, and he told me that during the 3 days, nobody complained about anything. . .
We worked as if we had worked together for 25 years. It was so easy. I mean unbelievably easy."
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| d. Talk about the reception your film has had a previous screenings |
"You can't stay neutral in front of this film," observes Elisabeth. "People--friends, people I never met, people who just met me--tell me sometimes that they had bad dreams about my short." Despite it's profound effect on viewers, Elisabeth says that her short is not recognized by juries of classic short film festivals. "It's true it is like a trailer for a feature, which is not something that is good for short festivals because [the jury] are expecting that you are not perfect, that this is your first and they want to help you.
It's my first; I have so many things to learn, but I was helped by gifted people."
Elisabeth was especially disappointed that the jury did not officially recognize Red Ribbon when it played at the Palm Springs festival., but the jury, nonetheless, offered her high praise. "A lot of jurists told me they loved the short! And some of the jury are giving tapes to everybody of my short, so they didn't only tell me they loved it; they really are acting."
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